Slide Trombone is in da house

[EOSThree]

I just received a package today from the FedEx man…Woo Hoo! my 100-400 slide trombone has arrived. I usually don’t perform any kind of formal lens test , but I have heard about some bad copies of this lens and it’s been raining since early afternoon outside. So I decided to set up an informal indoor test.

Test parameters:
Outdoor Photographer subscription ad taped to the wall of my cell(I am on the road and living in a sort of barracks).
Lightweight CF Tripod set up about 12 feet from the OP subscription target.
Rebel XT, AV for first test 1/60 to 1/40 no flash. M for second test 1/200, external flash at normal power.
Lens wide open: f/4.5 at 100mm, f/5.0 at 150-300mm, f/5.6 at 400mm.
Timer set for 10 seconds(I still haven’t purchased a remote release for my XT)
No MLU I would guess this would worsen the results a little, but I doubt I will ever use MLU with this lens, even the tripod is a bit of a stretch.

I am happy with the results. The lens showed a little softness wide open 350 and 400mm, but adding the help of the flash eliminated that trouble. That’s all the formal testing I’ll do. I’ll perform real world tests(go out and take photos of stuff I want to)as soon as I get a break in the weather. Things should get even better stopped down. I am pretty used to L build and the 100-400 is built as well as any lens I have. Everything feels solid, the switches all have a good positive feel, and the whole package feels heavy and well built. The slide trombone is a little hitchy, but I haven’t played with the friction, and I expect it will loosen some with time. Part of the reason for the hitchiness was I wasn’t zooming to frame the photo, but zooming to end up on an exact focal length. I would certainly prefer a zoom ring, the push pull is my only beef with this lens. For that very reason I considered the Sigmonster 120-300 f/2.8. But for the price, the range and the size, the slide trombone won out.
I uploaded the shots with the flash 100, 200, 300, and 400mm.

[EOSThree]

Here's a couple of crops:
First at 100mm second at 400mm. Sorry about the WB but I wasn't worried about that, just about sharpness.

[jgredline]

While I am not to familiar with Canon lenses, I am surprised to see such decent sharpness.
Most push pull lenses that I have seen are soft at both ends.

[Frog]

Look very sharp to me!

[EOSThree]

While I am not to familiar with Canon lenses, I am surprised to see such decent sharpness.
Most push pull lenses that I have seen are soft at both ends.

It's the Canon 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L, I expect pretty good results with it. But I am super happy with these results. These were shot RAW and processed with no sharpening wide open.